Market Commentary

US auto sales come in soft, the market retreats from yesterday’s run up, and the rest of the story is filled with bits and pieces of solid fundamental evidence that Europe is healing and almost half the big-cheese leaders of American corporations plan on spending some money this year. Did I get the gist of the news? Oh, yeh, and oil is still struggling with record inventories.

Happy days are here again for NASDAQ bulls, as the composite tech index hit a new all-time high yesterday and traded at its highest level since March of 2000. PowerShares QQQ is part of that happiness, as it has offered steady growth in recent years - the ETF rose by nearly 18% in 2014, and is already up over 5% year to date.

So what is driving this tech optimism, and is there more room to the upside before this 1990s style bull run shows signs of abetting?

Last week, I said that if 2002 is taken out on the downside for the SPX , then the door would be open for a push to the 2085-ish area. The important support line was never broken, and we saw the SPX make it to new highs.

That doesn’t change anything as far as the direction of the next “larger point move,” which has high odds of being down. The only thing in question right now, is whether we completed the minor pullback already and are now about to make new highs before heading lower or the hi...

The Nasdaq 100 pushed up to a new high on Monday and stalled about 50 points from our target zone . It may get there on Tuesday. This zone is a Fib Extension Zone, and markets tend to reach this level of extension 80% of the time, once they post a new high.

The NQ is much stronger than AAPL right now, and it is demonstrating that it doesn’t need AAPL to participate in order to zoom higher. That’s bullish.

By the way, Volume Profile is not particularly useful when an index is making new all...

In our pre-market summary yesterday, we pointed out that the short-term uptrend was intact, and mentioned 2112-2114 as a likely target for the S&P 500 mini futures . We got our target – the market closed at 2114 – and the continuing rally is reassuring the bulls. Now, if only we could get some volume back into the market.

Right now, it looks as if it is only the machines trading with each other. The volume yesterday was about average for the new normal in the futures, but it is pre...

Featured Stories

Last month, we initiated the discussion of inter-market relationships focusing on the currency market’s influence over commodity prices . Let’s turn our attention to the relationships that exist between various asset classes. Some of the conclusions from data will likely go against conventional wisdom.

Stocks and Bonds Can Go up and Down Together

The oldest adage in the finance industry is, “Stocks up, bonds down”. The quip stems from conventional theory suggesting there are two primary i...

Believe it or not, it was illegal, until very recently, for you to unlock your smartphone and take it from one carrier to another.

Yes, illegal in the traditional sense. Thanks to a quirky interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act , those who unlocked their phones, even as recently as a year ago could wind up behind bars for an unfathomable five years. That’s a long time for something as innocuous as using your property the way you want to use it.

Random price movements leave us with very little edge when it comes to reading the charts and technicals. Never mind fundamental analysis, which is simply impossible to explain how stock can move violently after a news event. The market is simply designed around accumulation and distribution, seen very clearly on a price and volume chart. Yet, when these buyers and sellers are pulled in each direction by the market, there is an uneasy feeling about participating.

The European Central Bank recently announced a trillion- dollar package to fight inflation. Whatever these central banks do will not have any effect on the world, short-term.

The ECB program involves printing 60-billion euros per month, which is nearly three-quarters of a trillion euros per annum, and they will start in March 2015 and end in September 2016. Their goal is an inflation target of two percent. The program involves the buying of euro-denominated assets. A bankrupt Europe does not...

Too many traders, trading psychology means dealing with negative emotions like fear and greed. We all know that negative emotions can cause trading difficulties. However, many of us don’t know that the way we think can cause big problems, too. We can be blind-sided by our thinking and decision making—especially when we use our normal, everyday problem-solving approaches in trading. These are traders’ mental blind spots, and they crop up in every trader’s trading. The irony is we usually ...